I Am Water, My Newest and Favorite Book

Last week my illustrated fable was finally published and released on Amazon. You can view it HERE.

Without a doubt, this was the most fun I ever had in creating a book. I posted about this book before when it was in the early stages but as the process went on, I liked it even more.

Unlike my previous works where the goals were to elicit emotion, get under the reader’s skin, and sometimes scare them, this book wasn’t created with a goal in mind. It just burst out of me in a frenzy. A happy frenzy. I was writing it and smiling. I was drawing the pictures and smiling.

When I read it back later, with very few changes from the original 48-hour scribbles-in-a notebook version, I feel uplifted, impatient to get it out there so others could feel the same.

And when the first proof was done and for the first time I read the book start to finish with the drawings (cleaned up and sharp and perfect) next to the verses, I was over the moon with excitement. Each little drawing brought me so much joy when woven into the story.

Now that the book is available, my hope is that those who read it, children and adults, will feel enlightened, connected, and have a new perspective on life. Is that too much to expect from a poetry book with pen and ink cartoons? I don’t think so. You don’t need a lot of words to make an impact. You just need the right words, and the right pictures.

Making a positive impact while enjoying the creative process is a pretty amazing thing.

Here are some sample pages, but seeing them in the book takes the experience to the next level. There’s a paperback and a hardcover. I LOVE the hardcover but the paperback is also pretty darn cute.

I asked a friend, Dr. Rev. Patrick Harbula, I met recently to read the book and review it. I was happy that he said yes but couldn’t be sure he would be as taken with it as I was. As an author we always have high hopes for our books, but one can never tell if someone else will feel the same.

Here’s what he calls his testimonial:

I Am Water by Tracy L. Carbone is a Godsend! It’s a brilliantly crafted story that introduces to children (and just as relevant for adults) metaphysical concepts about unity consciousness and unconditional love in a playful and compelling fashion. I read it with my 7-year-old granddaughter, and it opened questions and conversations of philosophical nature that would not have occurred from conversation alone. I highly recommend it for children and adults!

Dr. Rev. Patrick J. Harbula, Director of Living Purpose Institute and Bestselling author of The Magic of the Soul: Applying Spiritual Power to Daily Living and Meditation: The Simple and Practical Way

If you want a quick read that will uplift you, please check it out. You won’t regret it.

My Art Sanctuary

It’s taken months but finally my art/creative shed is complete! Last fall I was visiting family in Niland,CA, a tiny town built above natural hot springs. I go there to visit but also to unplug and relax. While there, I was reading an art book that showed various techniques. There was a whole chapter all about the importance of having a place to create art.

Until last weekend that special place was the kitchen table. Once dinner was done and everyone was out of the kitchen, I’d get my palette, paints, a cover for the table, brushes and my phone. Then I’d drag the easel from the corner of the kitchen and paint while the TV was on in the background and people and dogs would be walking by and chatting. I’m long used to this type of arrangement and wrote many of my books and stories on a crowded train or a crowded living room with the TV on and people and dogs around me.

But the idea of my OWN place to create enchanted me. I decided that day that in the spring I was going to replace the plastic tool shed with a read shed, a wooden one with windows and shutters. I was going to paint it bright colors on the inside, and soft brown on the outside.

I went back and forth on it from a financial standpoint as some life changes are coming soon but then decided I really wanted this and everything else would sort it self out. It always does.

Details don’t matter but I ended with a Tuff Shed. I can’t say enough good things about the process. It’s 8X12. I paid a tiny bit more for some of the extras like two 3 ft windows, a higher ceiling, a window in the door, a better subfloor. It came in about a week and was assembled in five hours.

The inside took a lot longer as I was doing this myself with my daughter’s fiancé (doing the heavy and technical stuff) and my daughter. We insulated and drywalled and painted it and added a peel and stick floor. We spent a lot of time and money at Home Depot getting supplies to make it as cozy as possible.We never have rain here, but we had a lot of rain, every weekend. This slowed our progress down but, drum roll, it’s awesome!

We can’t electrify it without permits so I got rechargeable lightbulbs on Amazon and put them cozy lamps (not plugged in). They’re just bright enough and last a long time.

I’ll be naming the shed one of these days and I’ll post when I do. For years, much of our craft stuff has been buried in bins so it’s nice that now everything is easily accessible in drawers.

I am enjoying it so much! If you can swing it, I highly recommend one.

-Tracy

Lots of New Paintings, and Why My Business is not a Business

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been too busy creating, working on my shed (the next post) and putting the final touches on my new book: I am Water.

After speaking to some people about my paintings and how I had to value myself, charge money, don’t do anything for free, I looked into making the painting a lucrative side hustle. Long story short, I wasted a lot of time setting up Printify, Shopify, an art Facebook page connected to both, and uploading and designing…but the amount of work and time required seemed never ending. And all the fun was sucked out of it.

The reason for my painting is twofold. The first is because I love painting. It’s peaceful and fulfilling and gets me in the Zone where I’m at peace. The second reason is the joy the paintings give people when they receive them. Once I throw “business” into the mix, and waste time on the business side, I’m not doing it for the right reasons and I feel that the work would show it. The magic in the paintings would be out the window, potentially.

So one happy day, almost as soon as I’d set it all up, I took the sites down and felt so much better. I’ve been unable to remove the Facebook page so I’ll use that to display my new works. I’m not charging for my paintings unless it’s from some rich stranger who insists, or it was a job for a business, and even then, I don’t know. People can pay for shipping if they’re not local. I anyone wants prints I’ll set up a direct ship at cost.

Without further ado, here are the newest ones. A cow, a friend’s dog, Dori.

Then a secret brother I didn’t know about, another friend’s dog (RIP Piper), a view from my aunt’s house in Massachusetts, a commission of the view from a lake house in Canada, and finally my grandson and two dogs at Valentine’s Day.

That’s about it for today. There may be other paintings, dozens in closets or the drawer of a cabinet but these are the most recent and mostly catches us up.

I’ve got an awesome new art area to work in that I’ve cover in the next post. Now that I have that retreat I’ll be producing more art and writing.

To creativity!

-Tracy

A Widower, an Ex, and My Little Grandson

I took a trip back east last month so my painting got a little behind.

Before I left, I started two paintings. One was of an old man and his ghost wife on a beach, and the other, an attempt to capture the image of my grandson looking introspective. Once I got home and settled back into my routine, I finished the first two.

Then over the weekend I started and “finished” a new one, of my daughter’s father who I saw while we were in Massachusetts. I may still work on it a bit to fix some details and background but I think it’s nearly there. You can check out my instagram @oilsbytracy for a timelapse video. My grandson saw the picture and shouted “Grampy” so I know the resemblance is there. Toddlers are pretty perceptive.

Here’s the newest. On the poetry book front, my publisher/husband got delayed on his part because of a knee issue so now I’m rethinking it and may add some more words and drawings. Until then…here are the paintings. These are all oil on canvas boards.

Last week I emptied out my booth at the vintage shop. I made it a year and it was a fun adventure but I was mostly breaking even and selling vintage items over my art, which is why I opened it in the first place. In 2024 I’ll be launching an online art store, one with less chit chat and more just pictures of the art for sale. This site will remain as my little bit of everything, to cover recipes, pets, writing, and art in it’s many forms. Right now I’m weighing the options: Shopify vs. Etsy vs. something else.

Have creativity to all!

-Tracy

Spencer and the Homeless Zoo

This painting was done for my daughter’s friend. He’s Spencer, a standard poodle. He’s still alive and happy so no Rainbow Bridge messages this time.

The painting above started with me wanting to paint a homeless person. I was going for sad realism like my old painting instructor had hanging in our class/his home gallery. Initially I was copying some a photo from Google but ultimately used my imagination. The kids in the background were supposed to be peering through the fence to the man on the street but as I painted it, I realized the fence looked like zoo bars. I went with it, gave him water and Happy Meal, and a flower to beautify his “cage.” It could be he’s in a zoo, as an attraction, or maybe it’s less literal and more figurative. In any event, I need a lot more practice to get to where my instructor is.

I’d picked up black gesso at a yard sale and tried it for the first time. It took a lot of paint to offset the darkness in the background so I don’t think I’ll use it again. But it was a good experiment. Both paintings are oil on canvas board, 11X14.

The Homeless Zoo is available at The Vintage Peddler in Simi Valley or you can reach out to me directly.

thevintagepeddler.net 1750 E Los Angeles Ave, Simi Valley, CA 93065 ·

(805) 624-7102

Thanks for reading!

-Tracy

Oil Paintings: Mochi, Astro, Godzilla, and a father and son on the beach

All paintings are oil on canvas board, 8X0

Mochi posing next to his painting

Astro

Godzilla

Travis and Quattro, first steps on the beach

Writing for the NewsBreak app

Though I’d sworn off writing about a year ago, as fiction was utterly wearing me out, both emotionally and energy-wise, I recently started on a new venture.

A good friend told me about his success with the NewsBreak app. He writes fiction in the form of books, and television and movie scripts, for his full time job but likes the flexibility and income from NewsBreak as side income. He said I should give it a shot. Since I use the app all the time for news I was intrigued.

I resisted at first, since if I was going to write anything it would be fiction, and I DID NOT WANT TO WRITE FICTION. And I had a hard enough time mustering enthusiasm for my blogs. But these would be short articles; not fiction but fact-based short articles. The sweet spot, my friend told me, was 400-500 words. For anyone who writes a lot of fiction, it’s not a matter of coming up with 500 words, but trying really hard to keep it to only that length.

Signing up to write is very easy. You answer a few questions here.

That’s it. Start writing, following the guidelines on titles, length, quotes, etc. At first I was worried about how to use other people’s pictures and trying to get permission or rights so tried to use my own. Then I learned that you can click the icon just to the right of the photo icon (where you upload your own) and choose from available pictures on Upsplash. This made posting so much easier!

The requirement to apply for monetization is 10 published articles, and 100 registered followers. On the left side of your screen, once you’ve registered, you’ll see the simple menu. Warning, checking your stats can be addictive. When you click the monetization tab, it will tell you how many articles you still need to apply and how many registered followers you have. You may have a lot of followers, but only the registered followers count toward your application to get paid.

In my experience, the article writing has been fun because it forces me into brevity and writing in general. Like anything, some articles are very easy, and some are a challenge.

I completed my 10/100 on March 16th and applied, assuming in 30 days at the outside, I’d get approved. It’s been about a week past the expected date and still no word. I could stop writing since I’m still not getting paid but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. One important thing to keep in mind, even if you publish an article before you’re accepted for payment, new impressions will still earn you money. I don’t have all the details on that yet but know that continuing to write isn’t a waste of time or potential earnings.

As of today, I’ve gotten over 1 million impressions, 1100 followers, 599 registered followers and have published 27 articles. Soon enough, I’m sure, this will translate into hard dollars.

In the meantime, it’s another fun venture like painting, work, dulcimer playing, and selling antiques, plus I’m building a following and honing my skills. I’ll update this post once I’m confirmed to give others an estimated timeline of acceptance.

Please follow me on the app and let me know what you think.

-Tracy

A Koala, Little Siblings, Coming Home, and Collective Consciousness

To round out a dozen animals that are not dogs and cats, I painted this Koala bear on an 11X14 canvas board. He will be available at my booth at The Vintage Peddler in Simi Valley soon, or contact me directly.

Below is a painting of my brother and I when we were very little. I painted this for my father’s 80th birthday. Sadly, shortly after this was taken, my parents divorced, and I didn’t see him for many years. We’re making up for lost time now.

This little girl in the painting called “Coming Home” is from my imagination, from dreams I’ve had a few times in my life. 11X14 oil on canvas board

Below is 100% from imagination. This work called “Collective Consciousness” was a project I created for a class I took at the Center for Spiritual Living in Simi Valley.

Branching out from Dogs

Though I love painting dogs, I’m not selling a lot of dog paintings outside of the ones commissioned. I decided to try my hand at some other animals, and took a crack at a mother and son picture of Abby and baby Travie from her birthday trek to Santa Monica Pier.

Without further ado, I give you “Hippo Lounging.”

“Smiling Lion”

“Friendly Quokka”

“Kangaroo and Joey.” This was a result of a badly painted small dog picture I never finished. I found it in the garage and was going to throw it away but someone in my house said it was good and I should finish it. I didn’t feel like I could do the original painting justice as my source photos were so different from each other I couldn’t get a handle on the dog’s true face. But turning it into a kangaroo was pretty easy.

This is a painting of a dog I saw at a play place with my grandson. I’ve been unable to contact the owners of the dog to offer them the painting so like many others it’s in my booth now, waiting for a buyer. It’s a Mini Bernedoodle.

The photo of Abby and the baby seemed like the perfect thing to paint to capture her birthday and his early steps. She was wearing a scarf in the painting and her face was in profile, shrouded in strands of hair, and heavily shadowed. She also wore glasses. After several attempts to get it right, and failing badly, I decided to scrap the actual photo and pretend the scarf wasn’t on her head. Then her hair would fall and obscure the face. Finally that worked.

“First Steps.”

If you’re interested in any of these original paintings, 8X10 or 11X14 on stretched canvas or canvas boards, please contact me or visit or contact The Vintage Pedler in Simi Valley CA.

A New Year and More Paintings

Happy 2023! I’ve been very busy the last couple of months. Three paid commissions, some just for me, and some for my store. I’m hard at work on a hippopotamus so stay tuned for my next post.

If you’re interested in a painting of your pet, please contact me 🙂

Happy New Year! Stay creative!

-Tracy